The idea is one of several suggestions for local-level obesity strategies put forward by an IDeA report. The Tackling Obesities: Future Choices - Project Report also suggests councils encourage walking and cycling through the planning system and making parks safer. Councils should also set up projects to get families eating better and exercising more.
Colin Waine, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said the report offered a long-term strategy for local government, which he added had a key role to play in reducing obesity. "It shows how complex and multi-fractional the problem of obesity is," he said.
However he said the ideas focused on preventing obesity. "The report didn't say how we can help people who are already obese and we cannot ignore their needs."
The report estimates about 28 per cent of women and one in three men in the UK will be obese by 2010.
www.cypnow.co.uk/doc.
